The information on this page is a summary description.
The full formal description is available here: Zonderschot Member
| Abbreviation | BcZo |
| Parent unit | Berchem Formation |
| Child units | |
| Lithological description | The member was formally described for the first time by De Meuter & Laga (1976) as a dark green, rather fine-grained, clayey, slightly ligniferous, very glauconitic sand, with a mode between 125 µm and 177 µm (Louwye et al., 2020; after Huyghebaert & Nolf, 1979). The micaceous sediment is very rich in homogeneously dispersed shells. The Zonderschot Member is finer grained than the other members of the Berchem Formation and has a higher clay content of approximately 12% (Huyghebaert & Nolf, 1979). |
| Age | The planktonic foraminifers belong to the Globigerinoides trilobus trilobus/Globigerinoides altiaperturus Biozone (Blow, 1969) or the Biozone N6 or Biozone N7 (Hooyberghs, 1996), which indicates at least a Burdigalian age. The Zonderschot Member holds the benthic foraminifers of the middle Miocene Uvigerina tenuipustulata – Elphidium inflatum BFN2 Zone (De Meuter & Laga, 1976; Doppert et al., 1979; De Meuter, 1980). The calcareous nannoplankton from the Zonderschot Member indicates the presence of the NN4 Zone, and a late Burdigalian to early Langhian age is inferred (Verbeek et al., 1988). The dinoflagellate cysts indicate the presence of the early Langhian Labyrinthodinium truncatum Zone by Dybkjær & Piasecki (2010). |
| Thickness | Huyghebaert & Nolf (1979) noted a maximum thickness of 5 m in the type section. |
| Area of occurrence | The geographical distribution of the Zonderschot Member is not well known and is probably restricted because of the lack of outcrops and cored drillings. |
| Type locality | The unit was described in detail in a 7 km long pipeline trench by Huyghebaert & Nolf (1979). The type locality is Zonderschot, a hamlet of Heist-op-den-Berg circa 30 km southeast of the Antwerpen. The location of the type section is given in Huyghebaert & Nolf (1979). |
| Alternative names | |
| Authors | Louwye, S., Adriaens, R., Deckers, J., Everaert, S., Vandenberghe, N. & Verhaegen, J. |
| Date | 01/09/2023 |
| Cite as | Louwye, S., Adriaens, R., Deckers, J., Everaert, S., Vandenberghe, N. & Verhaegen, J., 2023. The Zonderschot Member, 01/09/2023. National Commission for Stratigraphy Belgium. http://ncs.naturalsciences.be/lithostratigraphy/Zonderschot-Member |
